The downsizing or closure of Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Aircraft Division in far west Dallas would slice employment and economic activity associated with one of the region’s legacy industries.

The latest tenant of the 70-year-old aerospace manufacturing plant — Triumph Group Inc. — said this week that changing ownership of the property could result in higher costs and force the company to move its operations. The company employs 2,400 in the area.

The plant’s closure would be “devastating” for the local tax base, said Terry Brooks, a member of the Grand Prairie Independent School District board and an employee of the plant on Jefferson Street.

“Not only the tax base that the plant provides, but also the domino effect on the hundreds of other companies — and that may be a small estimate — that provide the tax base for this district,” Brooks said.

Dallas-based American Brownfield Corp. is buying the 315-acre property from the U.S. Navy, which has owned it for decades.

Triumph Group, from Berwyn, Pa., said American Brownfield proposes to more than double Triumph’s operating costs at the facility.

“Such a dramatic increase in costs would effectively price Triumph out of the facility, forcing us to significantly change our operating plans and consider other options, including relocation,” Triumph said.

American Brownfield, which redevelops environmentally contaminated urban and suburban properties, responded that Triumph had already planned to downsize the facility and was using the property sale and American Brownfield as a scapegoat for its workforce reduction plans.

Dedicated core of employees

Triumph Group acquired the facility in June 2010, the latest owner in a long line of aerospace manufacturers to rent the space from the government.

The facility first opened in 1940 as the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant. The Navy later selected Chance Vought Aircraft to operate the plant. The plant operated under various Vought companies until Northrop Grumman bought it in 1994. The Carlyle Group bought the facility in 2000 and formed Vought Aircraft Industries Inc., which was acquired by Triumph.

“They were always a company that people wanted to work for,” said Judy Bell of Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County and manager of the DFW Regional Aerospace Cluster. “Just like in the other aerospace companies, you had a lot of people that were very committed and had a strong allegiance to the company. It’s been bought and sold by a number of companies, but a lot of the core people had stayed there for years.”

The UAW Local 848 called on elected officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, to intervene and stop the sale of the plant.

“We need to stay just the way it is. … If there’s any increase on the lease, (Triumph) will start moving their work to other facilities,” President Romeo Munoz said. “They got facilities from the east to west coast. They got jobs all over the place that do exactly what we do here.”

Being made a ‘scapegoat’

Stuart A. Jones, president and CEO of American Brownfield, met with union leaders Tuesday afternoon. The company released a statement saying that Triumph’s plans for downsizing the plant were unrelated to the sale of the property.

American Brownfield noted that Triumph did not bid for the property when the U.S. General Services Administration put it on the market. The company also said that its lease negotiations for a possible “modest increase” in rent were ongoing.

Triumph’s claim that “its rent under American Brownfield’s ownership would double its operating cost is not based on any sound business facts,” American Brownfield said.

“Vought Aircraft (Triumph) stated from the start of lease negotiations in January 2012 that it planned to phase out high paying manufacturing jobs and replace them with lower paying assembly jobs at the facility,” American Brownfield said. “The feeling here is that American Brownfield is really being made a scapegoat for what Vought (Triumph) already planned to do, and that is to downsize, push out, get rid of manufacturing jobs, and turn them into lower-paying assembly jobs,” a company spokesman said.

American Brownfield said it is paying more than $357,000 in cash and a letter of credit for $16.76 million for the property. The letter of credit is financial assurance that American Brownfield will pay the cost of remediating environmental damage to the property from decades of industrial use.

American Brownfield said its plans for the property would contribute to the regional aerospace industry. It wants to convert the property into an aircraft manufacturing and maintenance center “that would utilize high paid skilled aerospace workers” and the 8,000-foot runway on site.